Research Associate: Conversations Around Bitcoin and Energy Have Been Oversimplified

This aggregated story was originally published on this site. Follow the link in the word Story at left to read the full article.

In the almost decade long existence of Bitcoin, the network has repeatedly come under fire for the large amount of electricity required to secure it.However, one researcher believes that the current discussion on energy use is largely redundant since it doesn’t take into account how the electricity itself is sourced or how technology evolves to become more efficient over time.Banking Uses More Energy Per Year than Bitcoin MiningIt is no secret that the Bitcoin network uses a lot of electricity.The tens of thousands of specialised hardware units constantly working to unlock new units of the digital currency are estimated to get through more power than a small nation such as Ireland every year.Statistics like these have been used for years now to discredit the network. Some have even claimed that the experiment in decentralised money is a pending “environmental disaster.” However, one researcher from the University of Pittsburgh argues that